Recently, I took inventory of the books I’ve started and not finished. I discovered that I had started a total of 28 books, containing over 300,000 words of content. All of these half-written books are sitting on my hard drive. That doesn’t include any of my articles, my short stories, my old college projects, or the books that I actually finished.

This is the kind of thing that happens when you think up too many ideas.

The urge to chase shiny objects is undoubtedly my Achilles heel. If I were a mechanic, I would probably have 10-15 bays containing strewn car parts amid shells of cars that don’t run. They could start a 12-step group for people like me.

There came a point when I realized that narrowing my focus and eliminating large numbers of potential solutions to problems is a silver bullet for me. I don’t run the risk of running out of ideas. There’s no harm in throwing some out the window indiscriminately. I’m just offloading surplus goods.

Do you hold on to ideas, afraid to let go of them? Don’t be. Not only is there an abundant supply, but there is a gross excess beyond anyone’s imagination. Throw away as many ideas as you want.